Riding the Raisina Tiger

Riding the Raisina Tiger - a Politico-military thriller about an Army Chief who decided to take things into his own hands. AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD ON 26 JAN ON OCCASION OF REPUBLIC DAY FROM https://www.amazon.com/Riding-Raisina-Tiger-Story-military-ebook/dp/B01ALCCNSS

Sunday, 8 May 2016

Pakistan today said
the “trust deficit” needs to be removed for better relations with India even as
it voiced support for any effort to restart the stalled bilateral dialogue
between the two nations.

On resumption of
talks with India, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said Pakistan would
support any effort to restart the dialogue process. Chaudhry said there was a
“trust deficit” which needs to be removed for better ties between the two
nations. “Whenever there will be talks between Pakistan and India, Kashmir will
remain on top of the agenda,” he added. He also talked about the arrest of
alleged Indian spy Kulbushan Yadav, and termed it as proof of “Indian
involvement” in Pakistan’s internal affairs.

India has
acknowledged Yadav is a retired Indian Navy officer but denied the allegation
that he was connected to the government. — PTI

Three militants were
killed in a four-hour-long gunfight in Pulwama district this morning. The
killings triggered protests at many places, leaving nearly a dozen persons
injured.

The protests
prompted the authorities to suspend train services between Baramulla and
Banihal and snap internet and mobile services in south Kashmir.

The gunfight erupted
at Panzgam in Awantipora around 2 am when a joint team of the police, Army and
CRPF cordoned off three houses in the village, nearly 35 km from Srinagar,
after receiving an input that militants were hiding in the area.

“As a search of houses suspected
of sheltering them started, the militants opened fire, triggering a gunfight.
Three militants were killed in the gunfight,” said Shridhar Patil,
Superintendent of Police, Awantipora.

Three AK rifles were recovered
from the encounter site. The slain militants were identified as Ishfaq Baba of
Tahab, Ishfaq Dar of Dogripora and Haseeb Palla of Brao Badan.

While Baba and Dar were associated
with the Hizbul Mujahideen, Palla was a member of the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The
house where the militants were hiding was razed during the gunfight.

The two Hizb men, both “category
A” militants, had been active since 2014 and were involved in many incidents of
violence. Patil said one Hizb militant was an accused in two cases of murder.

They were close associates of
21-year-old Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, who had been spearheading
the social media campaign of young militants. Palla had joined militancy last
year.

As news about the killing of
militants spread, villagers thronged the encounter site. A 17-year-old boy was
wounded after an unexploded grenade went off at the site. He was rushed to a
hospital.

Clashes broke out in Tahab as
people came out on the streets, throwing stones at police and CRPF personnel.
Youths threw stones at the CRPF camp and the clashes continued for almost three
hours.

The police fired tear gas to
disperse the crowd. Nearly a dozen civilians and policemen were injured in the
clashes. A shutdown was observed in the district.

Before the encounter in Pulwama
today, a total of 34 militants had been killed by security forces in various
anti-militancy operations.

Pakistan needs
modern F-16 fighter jets for the war against terrorism but rejects the conditions
the US has attached with the sale, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said on
Saturday.

Chaudhary said no
conditions should be attached to the sale of F-16s because Pakistan planned to
use the jets only for the purpose of fighting terrorists, Dawn online reported.
The US State Department earlier this week said Pakistan would have to pay from
its own funds if it wanted to buy F-16 fighter jets, after the US Congress last
month withdrew funds for the deal to force Islamabad to act against the Haqqani
network.

Chaudhry said
diplomatic efforts were underway to convince the Congress to subsidise the sale
of the fighter jets. Pakistan had earlier reached an understanding with the US
for buying eight F-16 planes.

Under the deal,
Pakistan was to pay about $270 million from its national funds. The US was
supposed to provide the rest from its Foreign Military Financing fund. — IANS

Minister of State
for External Affairs VK Singh today said macho talk by “videogame soldiers” in
the country worry him. “When I look at the security issues only one thing
bothers me. When people who are videogame soldiers, not actual soldiers, start
talking macho things then there is a great danger because they do not
understand the consequences of war or consequences of being a soldier,” Singh,
a former army chief, said without specifically referring to anyone.

“We have got a lot of very macho
talk at a very senior level. It can create problems, especially when your lower
lot realises that you have the strength to do the things which you are being
taught to,” Singh said at a seminar organised by the Centre for Eastern and
North Eastern Regional Studies Kolkata (CENERS-K). Without elaborating further,
Singh said: “I leave it for you to interpret.”

Asked about India cancelling
visa given to a Germany-based Chinese dissident Dolkun Isa, leader of World
Uyghur Congress, he said India did not have any reservations on anybody
visiting the country.

He said it was cancelled because
“there must be some problem with the visa itself”.

Union Minister of State for Home
Kiren Rijiju had earlier said Isa’s visa was cancelled because he had applied
for the travel document in a wrong category.

Singh said China was trying to
be a peer competitor to the US or excel it. “Everything is geared that way.
Whether it is economics or relations around the world, military or the
restructuring of the military,” the minister said. India has, meanwhile, told
Beijing it cannot have double standards on terrorism, saidVK Singh. — PTI

Indian Army is
holding a major military training exercise ‘Chakravyuh-II’ to validate battle
readiness and operational effectiveness of the Pivot Formation and Rapid
Division, in Suratgarh.

The exercise also
involves rapid mobilisation and execution of battle plans in conjunction with
the Air Force.

“The exercise aims to validate
the battle readiness and operational effectiveness of the Pivot Formation and
Rapid Division of the Army along with all its affiliated components” Defence
spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha said.

The exercise envisages
mechanised manoeuvres in the entire spectra of new generation weapons,
platforms and systems are employed in areas where rapid development and
urbanisation along the border is predominant, he said.

“It has provided an opportunity
to all commanders in planning and conduct of large scale operations an integrated
theatre environment along with Air Force including fighter ground attack
aircrafts, attack helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, remotely piloted
vehicles and communication helicopters,” Ojha said.

Consequently, troop insertion by
air was also integrated into the exercise using the Special Forces and other
Heliborne troops.

During the exercise,
intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communication systems were put
to test in a network-centric battlefield environment supported by required
operational logistics.

Improved mobility,
inventory management techniques and extensive use of information technology to
ensure logistics are in step with the fast paced operational environment was
also validated during the exercise.

NEW DELHI -- The
Indian army reportedly plans to import missiles from abroad rather than
continue buying a less-advanced locally developed system, prioritizing combat
capabilities over government efforts to promote domestic manufacturing.

Not up to snuff

"There were
technical, research-oriented issues" with India's Akash system, a Ministry
of Defense official told the Nikkei Asian Review. The military has finished
testing Israeli, Russian and Swedish alternatives, with Israel's Spyder in the
lead, the official said.

The ministry's
Defense Research and Development Organization had worked on the Akash
surface-to-air missile system for around three decades, intending to supply the
army, navy and air force. The army has ordered two regiments' worth, and the air
force has ordered 15 squadrons' worth, for a total of 250 billion rupees ($3.75
billion). The army had been expected to buy more, as it needs to deploy six
missile regiments along the borders with Pakistan and China. The Akash has a
range of 25km.

The army has
informed the R&D agency that it will not order any more Akash systems, a
source said. The Akash requires eight to nine seconds to fire, compared with
just four to five seconds for the Spyder, making the homegrown system more
likely to fail to intercept targets in border areas where response time is
limited. Its lack of the latest guidance technology was apparently also a
concern to the army.

Contract
negotiations with Israel "will be started sometime later," a ministry
official said. The military expects to negotiate the price of the Spyder down
to a level on a par with the Akash.

The Akash's
technical weaknesses owe to more than a decade of development delays. The navy
has avoided the Akash, citing stabilization problems, and the air force is unlikely
to put in any more orders.

Security analyst
Rajeev Sharma argued that the capabilities of the R&D agency, which is
tasked with developing more sophisticated military technology, are lacking. The
Akash is "meeting the same fate as Arjun," the indigenous tank
developed by the DRDO over 20 years, "which has no more buyers now due to
its weaker features," Sharma said. The government replaced the agency's
head last year.

Arms race

Pakistan and China,
which have locked horns with India in South Asia for years, have been building
up their militaries. Pakistan is strengthening its aerial forces, marketing the
JF-17 fighter jointly developed with China to Asian countries including Myanmar
and Sri Lanka while seeking to buy F-16 jets built by American defense
contractor Lockheed Martin.

India's
parliamentary committee on defence has criticised Indian Army measures to
create its new 17 Mountain Strike Corps (MSC) for deployment along the
country's disputed Himalayan border with China.

After revealing in a
series of reports to parliament on 3 May that the army was "grappling"
with the non-release of state funds for the country's first mountain-specific
strike corps, the 31-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence stated
that the army was "using its own reserves to raise the formation".

OA: Sahitya Academy
award winning author Datta D Naik has submitted a proposal to the Defence
Minister Manohar Parrikar to permit a group of Sahitya Academy award winning
writers from across India to spend time at the military bases and interview the
armed personnel about their experiences (within the framework of secrecy
constraints).

Naik told
mediapersons that he has also marked a copy of his letter to the Union Human
Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani as well as the President of
the Sahitya Academy so that these interviews of army officers and soldiers
written as stories, reportages, travelogues and novelettes are included in the
school and college text books as part of the curriculum.

The writer feels
this will help inculcate patriotism and encourage youth to join the army. Naik
said that there is very limited literature available on the armed forces.